Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Seems like most everyone, nearly 60% of users of soda drinks, are hooked on diet drinks, under the false belief that such drinks are good for you and can help you lose weight. Recent studies now prove that the very opposite is true. It’s no coincidence that over 60% of the population suffer from metabolic disorders and are overweight and obese. The obesity epidemic is real and is spreading rapidly ever since diet foods and artificial sweeteners became popular.

A recent study of more than 80,000 women showed that those that used artificial sweeteners put on more weight per year than those who did not use them. Other studies found that the artificial sweeteners trick the body into believing that there are incoming sugar calories that need to be processed by the digestive system. But there are no calories in the artificial sweeteners for the body to deal with. Our bodies crave calories and it has been found that people eat three times more calories and gain more weight when they regularly use foods and drinks containing the artificial sweeteners as compared to those consuming natural sugars in food and drinks.

Another serious side effect of ingesting too many artificial sweeteners are wide mood swings experienced by many people. They get an initial rush followed by a low or depression. One sweetener, widely used in many foods and drinks, is aspartame, a drug that may cause damage to the central nervous system. Aspartame in the digestive tract is converted into aspartic acid and phenylanine, plus wood alcohol (a dangerous poison) and formaldehyde (embalming fluid). Both of the latter two are poisonous to humans. Aspartame accounts for the majority of adverse reactions reported to the FDA.

Not only aspartame, but saccharin, acesulfame K, tagatose, wonda, Sweet and Low, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, Talim, and other “new” artificial sweeteners are potentially detrimental to human health. Be sure to read product labels before choosing to use products with artificial sweeteners. If you wish to protect yourself and your family, avoid diet drinks and foods that contain artificial sweeteners and start your real diet with healthy and natural fruit, fruit juices, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds and legumes.